>>PREVIEW
JIM GUIBOCHE
April 13 and 14
Red Onion
Monster guitar player and founder of Jimmy and the Sleepers, Jimmy Guiboche, has played the blues across Western Canada, beginning in his early days of jamming at Bud’s on Broadway in Saskatoon. Now based in Edmonton, Guiboche and his band have earned a reputation for knowing their stuff.
"We’ve done a lot of backing gigs with some pretty serious guys, like Lazy Lester and Jody Williams and Joe Beard," Guiboche says. "All these guys, they come up and play with us and they really like it. They’re not just saying like ‘yeah, yeah great job,’ but they’re saying like ‘Man, you guys can play the blues,’ you know, ‘like you’re doing it right and you know your stuff.’ We’re not a burnin’ Chicago blues band. We don’t know everything there is to know about (blues), but we do know how to do the job."
Knowing your stuff is only part of it. For Guiboche, the blues is all about being honest. This honesty is what hooked Guiboche from the first time he saw Big Dave McLean play in Saskatoon.
"It’s just honest, pure music. It’s not just blues, but any kind of music that’s played from the heart, played sincerely and played out of passion. It doesn’t matter if it’s old-style country, or blues, even rock ’n’ roll, as long as the music is real and that’s what blues tends to be. As long as it’s played from the heart, you know, that’s definitely what keeps me there if it’s real and honest. As long as you’re playing from your heart and playing honestly, then you can’t really go wrong."
It’s no accident then that the same commitment to honesty has often paired Guiboche and Big Dave McLean. The two are playing Calgary this weekend. They know each other so well that the music’s just straight – no contrivance and no rehearsals. Guiboche laughs when he recalls once talking to McLean about rehearsing.
"The first time we played together, I said, ‘well what about rehearsals?’ He’s like, ‘well, we’ve been rehearsing for years Jimmy, you know, we don’t need to. We’ll just show up and play the blues, man.’ You know a lot of guys are like that, it’s like either you can play or you can’t. It’s like if you can’t do it, you can’t do it. But if you can, well do it." Clearly, these guys can. |
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